Import DWG with Xref's into Design Review 2008 with Trueview

[benmay]

Firstly sorry if this should be in a more relevant forum sub branch, but I couldn't find a branch for Design Review

I have installed the latest Design Review 2008 and also the latest Trueview

I would like to setup Design Review so that non-caddys can open DWG files with Design review and look at the drawing and possibly take measurements from the drawings which is all achievable with Design Review

However when I import with design review (which then externally publishes with Trueview), any attached xrefs are not being published (note these xrefs are also overlayed into the drawing and not attached (company standard)

But if I create the DWF from within Trueview the DWF comes out fine.

Also by default when you import a DWG to DWF in Design review it creates both a Modelspace and a paperspace view

Can anyone help me with how to change the default settings of the DWF plotting that is done within, I cannont find anywhere to get this to work for me

I could get them to first open the drawings in Trueview batch print the drawings they would like then open them in Design View. But if I can use the import option from within Design Review this would eliminate that step

Thanks

[Mike.Perry]

Firstly sorry if this should be in a more relevant forum sub branch, but I couldn't find a branch for Design Review

[ SNIP ]Hi "benmay"

No worries... please note I have *moved* this thread from the DWG TrueView - General (http://forums.augi.com/forumdisplay.php?f=270) forum to this one...

Thanks, Mike

Forum Manager

[rkmcswain]

You just pointed out some of the reasons that Autodesk just needs to add two commands (._AREA and ._DIST) to DWGTrueView.

The whole "publish to DWF" thing is silly. Why should you have to create a second file format in order to measure? VoloView worked just fine. We would even pay for TrueView if it had the ability to measure.

One option is to forget TrueView and just use BentleyView which can open DWG files and does include measuring tools.

See also:
http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5553810
http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5375350
http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5418249
http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5207647

For answers to your current problems, I suggest re-posting in the Autodesk TrueView discussion group [ http://discussion.autodesk.com/forum.jspa?forumID=109 ] and/or the DWF discussion group [ http://discussion.autodesk.com/forum.jspa?forumID=114 ] since there is more traffic in those groups.

Good luck.

[rmbalzer]

I have D.R. running on several machines with more in the future and have determined the best way to "publish" the DWF file for DR to receive is to plot it directly from autocad with layer information toggled on in the custom properties of the DWF printer properties. It also gives just the Model space version of the file. Hope this helps.

[rkmcswain]

I have D.R. running on several machines with more in the future and have determined the best way to "publish" the DWF file for DR to receive is to plot it directly from autocad with layer information toggled on in the custom properties of the DWF printer properties. It also gives just the Model space version of the file. Hope this helps.

That is the main problem with Design Review though. The people in our company (and many others) that need to open a DWG and measure it do not have AutoCAD to open the DWG and plot to a DWF. Yes, Design Review can auto-publish, but with problems.

AutoCAD 2008 does have an option that will create a DWF each time you save or exit a drawing editing session.

[rmbalzer]

Yeah, totally agree with the extra step required for end-users to open DWGs. there are certainly bugs with DR that i am trying to research.

[benmay]

Thanks for the replies, I have posted on the autodesk discussion boards as well. But thus far haven't found a solution

I agree with the comment about true-view having a measure function that would avoid having to convert the DWG to DWF at all, but I am sure there is a good reason for not having that feature.

In the mean time I still cant get the import to work from within design review. My work-around thus far is to batch convert the drawings from within true-view and this works fine, but the extra step is something I don't want to explain to the non-cad users. I would prefer not printing from ACAD to DWF at this moment. Our current standard is to issue PDF's to clients. So creating DWF in addition would duplicate to much data for us
That is why I wanted to get Design Review running with Trueview so that the drawings could be temporarily converted to DWF for measuring and viewing by non ACAD users. Ideally I would love to say goodbye to PDF's and use DWF's but the reality is that our clients don't want to download a free viewer when they already have acrobat.

I am interested to kow if other people are having this same problem? And more importantly if anyone is not having the problem.

[rkmcswain]

I agree with the comment about true-view having a measure function that would avoid having to convert the DWG to DWF at all, but I am sure there is a good reason for not having that feature.
Yes. It's called "we want people to create DWF's so we can win the contest with Adobe and their PDFs"...

Autodesk says they want a single tool for markups, viewing, etc., so if that is true, why have TrueView at all?



Ideally I would love to say goodbye to PDF's and use DWF's but the reality is that our clients don't want to download a free viewer when they already have acrobat.

Amen.
The client is your customer. If they want a PDF, you send them a PDF.
It doesn't matter that DWF may be the better format... Betamax was better than VHS, but who won that battle?



I am interested to kow if other people are having this same problem? And more importantly if anyone is not having the problem.
We supply PDF's to clients that request them.
We use Bentley View internally so that non-CAD users can open and measure DWG files.
We would *like* to standardize our plot file format to DWF, but Oce cannot get their act together and handle DWFs...